Kairos is an immutable Linux meta-distribution designed for edge, cloud and bare-metal deployments. It can transform supported Linux distributions into image-based systems with a common installation, upgrade and recovery model.
Kairos distributes complete operating system images using OCI containers and supports atomic A/B upgrades, rollback and recovery. Hadron is the default base for official images, while Alpine, Debian, Fedora, openSUSE, Rocky Linux and Ubuntu can also be used.
Kubernetes is optional, with support for k3s and k0s. Kairos also supports cloud-init, automated provisioning, Secure Boot, measured boot and full-disk encryption, and runs on x86-64 and ARM64 hardware.
Key Features
- Immutable, image-based operating system architecture.
- Uses OCI images for system deployment and upgrades.
- Supports atomic A/B upgrades and rollback.
- Provides a dedicated recovery system.
- Supports multiple Linux distributions as a base.
- Uses Hadron for official prebuilt images.
- Supports k3s and k0s.
- Uses cloud-init for system configuration.
- Supports automated and zero-touch provisioning.
- Supports Secure Boot, measured boot and full-disk encryption.
| Working state: | Active |
| Desktop: | None |
| Init Software: | systemd / OpenRC depending on base |
| Package Management: | Depends on base |
| Release Model: | Image-based |
| Platforms: | x86_64, AArch64 |
| Home Page: | kairos.io |
| Developer: | Kairos project |
This entry was written with the assistance of a visitor who completed the distro form.
| This article is part of our Big List of Active Linux Distributions and Open Source Operating Systems. |
What's a Linux distribution ("distro")? |
| A distro provides the user with a desktop environment, preloaded applications, and ways to update and maintain the system. Each distro makes different choices, deciding which open source projects to install and provides custom written programs. They can have different philosophies. Some distros are intended for desktop computers, some for servers without a graphical interface, and others for special uses. Because Linux is an open source operating system, combinations of software vary between Linux distros. |
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